


A Mismatched Set

by katajainen



Series: Nwalin Week 2018 [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: A small unhappy story, Dysfunctional Relationships, I don't really recommend Nori's MO here, Lack of Communication, M/M, No beta - provided as is, Nwalin Week, Nwalin Week 2018, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Post-Break Up, Post-Quest of Erebor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 15:00:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katajainen/pseuds/katajainen
Summary: What started out as sweet and simple went sour in the end, but letting go is more easily said than done.





	A Mismatched Set

**Author's Note:**

> Nwalin Week 2018, Day 4, prompt ~~**Sweet** or~~ **Sour**.
> 
> Don't even ask.

Deep in the heart of Erebor reclaimed, the house of brothers Fundinul was secure and well-protected, as befit the head of the King’s Small Council and the Captain of his Guard. However, there were few places in the Mountain where the King’s Spymaster could not enter, had he a mind to do so.

And sometimes Nori would come, simply to watch Dwalin sleep.

He would stand beside his bed, holding up the faint glow of a thief’s lantern, and let his gaze wander over familiar rough-hewn features, grown soft in sleep, allowing himself the luxury of fantasy: that he was just about to slip under the covers himself and snuff out the lantern. That there would be a place for him there, a welcome. 

It had been simple once; a sweet distraction on the road, pleasure that was an end unto itself, all they both needed or desired. Simple, when tomorrows were but a figment of a dream.

But just as dream-stuff had turned into high halls of polished green stone, theirs to call their own, their home once more, what had been sweet between the two of them had turned sour. Their bodies would still cleave together easily, fit like lock and key, but they would often be at cross-purposes in all other matters. 

Because Dwalin was honest as the day was long, and constant to a fault, while secrets and tricks were Nori’s mead and meat, and he was not made for permanence. Of course, this was the way they had both been when they first knew each other, but it had mattered little, when they had both yearned for baser things: release and comfort, another warm body. Hearts and minds weighed little against that. But the longer they tried to hold onto each other, the worse their differences would grate and chafe at them, until there was nothing left but to call an end.

Nori eased the shutter closed on the lantern, and the darkness settled back into the room. It was time for him to go, and take this small stolen moment with him.

As soon as he closed the door behind him, he knew there was someone else in the darkened hallway with him. His feet soundless in soft-soled boots, and his back to the wall, he began to creep towards the back of the house.

‘Stop right there.’ There was a scrape of metal against stone, then another, and Nori could have run then, could have used up that last sliver of darkness to save his dignity, but he stayed where he stood. A flame flickered to life in the fat-soaked wick of the lamp, and the light reflected off Balin’s hair and beard, the white near luminous against the darkness behind him. ‘This has gone on for long enough,’ he said without further preamble.

‘I was already leaving; and you won’t see me here again.’ Nori would not apologize; he still had his pride.

‘You mean to say I won’t catch you again,’ Balin said with a wry half-smile. ‘But you’ll still keep coming.’

Nori shook his head on instinct. ‘Why would I do that?’

‘Because even now, my brother would gladly forge you your wedding ring, if you but let him.’

‘Then he is a greater fool than I thought.’

‘Ah, but here is the thing, lad; we’re all great fools in love, whether we’re kings or lords or beggars on the road.’

Nori smothered a mirthless laugh. ‘Then at least that foolishness is his alone.’

‘If so, why are you here? Why not come through the front door in broad daylight?’

Nori did not reply. All the lies that Balin would see through were ready on his lips, but he let them die unspoken.

‘There’s no shame in taking the longer road if the journey ends the same.’

Nori shook his head at Balin’s words. ‘The only long road we ever took was to find out we were ill-matched.’

‘To begin with, perhaps – but now? I’m not the one to tell you.’

This time Nori did laugh, a sad quiet sound that was half a sigh. ‘No-one changes that much.’

Balin let him out the back door. ‘Please don’t tell him I was here,’ Nori said at the doorstep. The white-haired dwarf nodded, and that was a small mercy, at least, not to have Dwalin know of the extent of his foolishness.

For if his heart had truly grown as transparent as finely blown glass, its desires plain for anyone with eyes to see, Dwalin could have understood him as easily as his brother, only he had chosen not to. Perhaps it was fitting that they should be mismatched in this as well as in other things: that at any one time, only one of them could be a fool in love.


End file.
